Does it annoy you when people criticize age differences? I am annoyed by it. Especially when both parties are at the legal age. If it's legal and they love each other, I feel they should be left alone.
For the most part, I pretty much agree with you. If both are adults over the age of consent, then people should just leave them alone, and not be so judgemental. The one problem is, though, the "age of consent" tends to differ depending on where you live - and then there's a "gap" thing as to how far apart in age legal age partner and the underage partner can be.
Very few people would object to a 17-year-old and an 18-year-old doing it in places where 18 is considered the legal "age of consent" - but a 12-year-old and a 20-year-old would be a lot more iffy. Also, what if the gap was "four years" - and the legal party happened to be four years and one day older than the underage party? There really is no clear, cut, and answer to this whole issue.
I know the whole concept of Doc/Marty slash is very controversial in this community - as Marty is 17, and Doc is either 35 in 1955 or 65 in 1985. It's not quite as controversial as George/Marty slash is, but it's still subject to criticism - and I highly doubt it'd make a difference to most if Marty was 18 instead of 17, and I think I've heard that 16 is the legal "age of consent" in California.
Anyway, Clara is 35 years younger than Doc - which is actually a larger age gap than Marty/Doc '55 is.
I try not to involve myself into these sot of controversies, but is a very touchy issue to address - and it's hard to know where to draw the line.
Right. Exactly. Doc is 35 years older than Clara. But they love each other and that's all that matters.
Right, exactly! I know so many people talk about how things were so much better back in the Old West, but I'm pretty sure the relationship between Doc and Clara didn't exactly go unchallenged in those days. Of course, gender roles were more rigid back then - and racist sentiments were more prevalent. I think we have a long ways to go before we reach a truly tolerant and non-judgemental society, but we have gone a long ways in over a century.